Keith Beardsley: NDP stalling tactics could have been learned from Tories' playbook

NDP stalling tactics could have been learned from the Tories' own playbook

Everyone in Ottawa is agog over the big dust up in the House of Commons on Wednesday. In reality it wasn’t very much, just another new low registered for decorum in the House.

The Official Opposition thought they had caught the government on a technicality and they wanted to force another vote, which would have further delayed passage of Bill C-45, the government’s latest omnibus bill. The attempt sent House Leader Peter Van Loan across the floor to wave his finger at the NDP’s Nathan Cullen amid an exchange of curses. Why? It is perfectly legitimate for any opposition party to use the full arsenal of tactics available to them to delay or defeat government legislation.

Perhaps the Conservative side has forgotten the tactics they used when one of their predecessor parties (the Reform Party) used every tactic available to stall the Nisga’a Treaty from being passed by the Chretien government.

In 1999, the Reform Party forced 471 votes on amendments to the Nisga’a Land Claims Treaty. According to the CBC, it took 42 hours and 25 minutes to force recall votes on all the motions, including some as minor as the placement of a comma. Delaying or stalling the passage of a bill is a legitimate tactic in a democracy. While the Conservatives may not like anyone delaying their agenda in the House, the last I heard Canada was still a democracy and opposition parties are not required to do the government’s bidding.

In opposition the Conservatives and Stephen Harper opposed omnibus bills. Today they ram them down the throats of the opposition parties with little regard for the niceties of real debate over items that both the opposition and public might feel need further discussion. Their heavy-handed use of time allocation is guaranteed to leave opposition parties in no mood to cooperate with a government agenda or timetable. If someone had the time, it would be interesting to see how often other Commonwealth democracies limit debate in their legislatures and compare it to the present government’s use.

Even if every one of the acts and regulations that are crammed into C-45 need to be updated and or amended, the government side controls the parliamentary agenda. They decide when items are introduced and they decide what is to be discussed in the House. Could they not have carved that omnibus bill into smaller pieces of legislation for proper debate? It is not the opposition’s fault if the government can’t get itself organized to get bills passed on time after suitable debate.

The Christmas break can’t come soon enough for Members of Parliament, who really need to get away from the bubble they live in in Ottawa. It’s time to get back home where constituents can tell them a thing or two about how they view their shenanigans in the House of Commons. I would wager all the parties will get the same tongue lashing they deserve for the way they conduct the serious business of governing the nation.

National Post

Keith Beardsley is a strategist for True North Public Affairs and a political pundit and commentator who served as a senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for issues management to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. His blog can be found at www.atory01.com